Officer Valor’s eyes slowly opened. He felt a dull pain in his chest as he stared straight above him at the ceiling. An ugly dull white scheme plagued the room, with just a nauseating hint of yellow. The pain began to intensify and he gritted his teeth as he tried to sit up. Looking around the room, he noticed that he was in a hospital.

The stallion glanced down at his chest to see a blood-stained bandage wrapped around him. The dark look of the blood made him think it hadn’t been changed in a long time. A quick glance at the rest of his body showed marks on his body. They looked like burns.

“Nurse!” He screamed, his voice weak and groggy. He brushed his hoof through his mahogany colored mane. It was long and shaggy, indicating to him that he’s been out for quite a while. With a struggle, he managed to pull himself from the bed and stood up shakily on his legs.

“Ok.” He said to himself calmly. “Gotta try to remember.” He thought hard about what had happened.

In a flash, he found himself staring at a burning building. He remembered that he wasn’t on duty. No, he was off that day. A filly screamed from inside. Valor galloped as fast as he could toward the building hearing a stallion excitedly yell that Philomena was rumored to have accidently sent the building ablaze when she recovered from her ashes. Probably off pranking another pony. That damned bird.

Valor bolted through the door and into the main room, feeling the heat against his face. The furniture was already up in flames, as were the walls and floors. Smoke was forming a thick cloud, making breathing a near impossible task. Another loud scream pierced his ears. He had determined the sound to have come from the basement.

The stairs were beginning to burn like the rest of the house. Valor quickly ran down into the basement to find that the filly was cowering with her back to the wall, tears streaming down her terrified face. Officer Valor sprinted toward her and placed her on his back. As he turned, his eyes met the real cause of the fire. The boiler was expanding with the look of a pot belly stove. Flames poured out of small holes in its metal chassis. It didn’t take a genius to know it was going to explode.

“Oh shit.” He said in disbelief. A loud screeching sound filled the house as the boiler began to spit out hot steam in every direction. Valor turned quickly and began toward the stairs only to find he was blocked off by flames. In a panic he threw the filly gently above the fire and toward the stair case. She looked at him with teary eyes and ran out of the burning building.

Valor looked at the flames and determined that the only way to make it was to try and run through. Sweat poured down his face as the fire grew larger and larger around him. Voices and sirens outside were nearly drowned out entirely by the crackling and hiss the fire was causing. Suddenly a large creaking sound filled the basement. The floor above him began to crumble and fall. One last chance.

Valor took a breath and galloped with all his might through the fire, felling it burn his coat. He felt his head burn as his mane quickly caught on fire. Adrenaline helped, but the pain was still strong. It didn’t matter to him. He was almost there. He was gonna make it.

BOOOOM!

He felt nothing but the sharp pain of something entering his chest. A piece of shrapnel? Probably. The stallion lay where the explosion threw him. Then, nothing.

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Ok, there’s nothing I hate more than authors putting their two bits in at the end of a story, but I got to. I promise this won’t be a regular occurrence. Sorry that this chapter was a bit dull, but you gotta start somewhere. I wanted to worry more about the character than the zombies at first. Zombies will be in the next one and (more than likely) in all the others.

SO! I hope you enjoyed it. And if not, try the next one at least. C’monnnnnnn. ZOMBIES!